


Farsight vs Shadowsun

by That_Pyro_Fella



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Angst, Don't expect shipping or sex duh, I love my dumb blueis, More angst, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26696089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Pyro_Fella/pseuds/That_Pyro_Fella
Summary: The Eight had received a message of peace from the main Tau Empire. Reading themselves for war, they seem little aware that message is only destined to one of their members.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Farsight vs Shadowsun

**Author's Note:**

> This may or may not be the product of a slightly intoxicated me fueled by angst at 1am.

High in the skies above the dry ground, an Orca dropship flew, approaching the ground with speed. It circled a few times in an empty area before descending, the ramp opening wide and revealing its confines. From inside, red-colored fire warriors stepped down, weapons raised high. Soon, the step of war machines followed and their respective owners, five Crisis battlesuits. The soldiers spread along the field, giving space for the elite team to move.  
More ships populated the skies. More descended, filling the ground with fire warriors. And soon, a broadside and a riptide.  
Inside the expedition’s appointed leader, the old commander had a view on all the battlefield. Information cascaded in, from the ships high in the skies to the pathfinder teams, already scouting the field.  
In the distance, a city rose in. Human, specifically imperial. Still showing the signs of recent battle, contrasting so heavily with the tau machinery operating in it. In a dirty white. Bearing a symbol he knew so well.

Sha’vastos felt a twist in his heart. The moment had come. The moment he so much feared and anxiously waited for. The moment he would find himself face to face with those he once called allies.

“They haven’t shooted yet.” A young voice spoke up, the cross in the screen lighting up.

“Thanks for telling the obvious, Brightsword.” Another voice spoke up, identified as Ob’lotai 9-0.

“They don’t plan to attack. At least not yet.” Sha’vastos spoke up after tense micro-decs.

“But they’re the enemy…”

“Yes-” Sha’vastos cut in. “But they invited us, and we accepted.”

“I still don’t understand why, commander. And why the high commander isn’t with us.”

He intended to reply but was cut short back, this time from the towering riptide. “It was from her, wasn’t it? The invite?” 

Sha’vastos didn’t reply, not that the Stone Dragon needed it.

Outside, the small army had started the walk towards the city. Scouts coming in first even if the commander knew they wouldn’t be necessary. If the enemy was who he knew, and was, they would slip as easily through the pathfinder teams.

The breachers moved in, keeping the flanks protected. Drones flew by. And in the middle, the Eight. Or better, what was left of them. Their commander had left them for that mission, claiming important tasks to attend to. Sha’vastos argued back but was left to comply. He moved his suit to look behind, to the Orca ship still hovering over the ground. The glimpse of red seemed to catch him.  
The air seemed to blur. The first warriors pointed their guns but as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.  
The soldiers stopped shortly after, forming a semicircle around the ships.  
The air danced and twirled along them, passing through them. In direction of the ship.

Deep inside the cargo bay, a tau remained still, the towering suit behind him. At his side clutched in an arm, the so trusted sword. In his eyes, still the fresh memory of an invite. After so many years dreading it, the two tau forces had finally collided.  
And war was what did not come from it. Instead, an invite. From someone he once swore to give his life for.  
The muffled sound of steps filled the ship.  
Suddenly but not unexpected, the air surged and the clear lines of a stealth suit he knew so well. A piece suiting of a commander.

“Shadowsun.” He spoke sternly, for the first time in forever.

“Farsight." The suit answered back. Farsight felt like choking on that voice, so similar and different than before.

Silence fell between them. The sound from outside died out, not even the sound of the ship making itself be heard. And finally, Shadowsun spoke.

“How could you?” She spoke sternly, her voice hitting him like bullets.

Farsight felt remorse at that sentence. Felt pain and the worst of all, betrayal. The suit in front of him remained, hiding well from the world all that had happened and was happening.

“It was the correct thing to do.” Farsight answered back with the certainty in his voice returning.

“How could you abandon everything we’ve worked for? How could you abandon me?”

“It was never about us.” He sighed deeply.

Silence again. This time, being replaced by the air hissing. The stealth suit moved its hands to the helmet, removing it. And for the first time in centuries, Farsight saw her face.  
No longer the same face he had wished goodbye long ago, before being driven into cryogenic sleep by orders of the Aun’va. No longer that young face, so full of life and so silent about it. No, that face was marked by the age, by the difficulties that she had endured. It was a tired and old face, each decade showing itself in its lines.  
But still that same face he would be distracted by.

“No it wasn’t.” Her voice, now free of the machinery, sounded tired. So tired. “It was about all of us. The Tau’va.”

“Our greater good, or the ethereals’?”

Her face twitched so slightly.

“You’re just a pawn to them, and you know it. All these cyr, you’re just awakened from your slumber to be a pawn to whatever threatens your empire.”

“I know it, I always knew and so did you. We’re shos after all, we’re weapons, we’re the hand that wields it, the mind that decides when to strike, and the soul that knows why the blow must land.”

Farsight sighed, feeling the wisdom of these words he proffered so long ago striking back at him.

“I saw the galaxy burning, I saw the stars being consumed in cosmic fire, bringing down everything with them. Every planet, every living being, every single soul, tau or not, and all their dreams, their hopes and what they fought for.”

“And that is what made you deviate from the Tau’va?’ A weak grin showed at her lips. “I’ve seen chaos too, you’re not the only one to gaze down to that abyss.”

“Not the first, I am aware of that. Others did it so and they were consequently purged, their deaths deemed as a necessary act for the Greater Good. But I was the first to stray enough to escape their clutching hand around my neck. I was the first to gaze upon the secrets of the Ethereals and escape.”

A pause. And then she continued. “Have you ever asked yourself if that’s what Puretide would want? Puretide himself, not the enneagram that resides within one of your commanders.’’

Now, it was Farsight’s time for expression. His face clenched, the small threat of anger showing up. “Do you know what he said to me, his last words? Trust no one, not even them.”

“The last words as you killed him.”

“I had no other option and you know it. Have you ever wondered why the ethereals wanted him dead? It wasn’t only a punishment for me.”

She breathed in. “So is this what you follow? Lost without the ethereals’-”

“We never needed it-.”

“-guidance like during the Mont’au?”

The commander didn’t reply, unable to find the words.

“Have you looked at yourself, Farsight? Have you seen your face?” He moved a hand upwards, touching his cheek. He knew well what she was referencing.

“How old are you even? How many decades have passed? Thirty?” She looked down to him, every trace of her age showing. “And yet, you are as young as when we first met.”

He bowed his head down. She let a final sigh and turned around. But Farsight couldn’t let it end like this and approached her, lifting the heavy sword behind him.

“Wait, please… Before you go. Again.’ She turned back, sadness in her eyes. Farsight breathed deeply and held her hand, just like so long ago.

“Come with me, Shadowsun. Join my enclaves by my side. With no more lies, with no more blinding, just us again like before. Free from their clutches, free to strike down at the galaxy. I can’t promise you the stars, but I can give you the freedom to catch them.”

Once again, she let his hand down. Once again, she pushed him. And turned around, fitting the helmet back on her suit.

“I’m sorry, Shos…”


End file.
